WASHINGTON — Before the Good News Singers took the stage Sunday evening in Washington, the group’s director, Chuck Hicks, spoke to more than 150 people in the audience.

“We came here because we’re from Arkansas,” Hicks said. “That’s where tornadoes live. We’ve had in the last three years several experiences like yours. We know what those sirens sound like. And we know what it looks like to walk down the street and see nothing where there used to be something.”

The Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort (CCDRE) in central Illinois organized the concert at the Countryside Banquet Facility from the Good News Singers, a group of students from Harding University in Searcy, Ark., who perform uplifting, spiritual songs a capella. Bryan Reeves, the director of the CCDRE, has been friends with Hicks for years, and the two hatched the concert idea as a diversion for tornado-affected families in central Illinois.

“I’ve known Chuck for 40 years or so,” Reeves said. “He has brought the Good News Singers to the Eureka Church of Christ before. I said, ‘Chuck, can you help with the relief work?’”

The students are on spring break and have toured the Midwest during their week off. Hicks said concerts in Davenport, Iowa, were already scheduled and a quick jaunt to Washington was easy to plan.

“We’ll do whatever we can as far as lifting spirits and encouraging people because that’s what we want to do,” Hicks said. “We can’t do much. We sing. There’s not a whole lot we can do, but some people think it’s pretty cool.”

The students will tour some of the devastation Monday morning before another performance for a local nursing home. Up until Sunday, all that he and the students have seen were news reports and pictures on Facebook, he said.

Before the Good News Singers performance, Reeves took a moment to honor the handful of people in attendance whose homes were affected by the tornado. He also had the volunteers from the Churches of Christ in central Illinois stand to be recognized for their ongoing tornado relief efforts over the past four months. Phillip Booker, a Eureka Church of Christ member and resident of Roanoke, brought his family to the concert to support some of his fellow church members that lost their homes.

“We came to enjoy the family event but also to help in any way for those affected,” Booker said. “We were fortunate that our house wasn’t damaged, but we know some people from our church that did.”